In the manufacture of blow molded plastic bottles for containing liquids, such as beverages, it is customary to utilize an injection-molded preform having a threaded finish which forms the threaded finish of the container blown from the preform. The preform may be injection molded from a variety of desirable plastic materials, a currently particularly preferred material being polyethylene terephythalate (PET).
In hot fill applications, i.e. applications where the blown container is filled with a liquid at a temperature in excess of 180.degree. F. (82.degree. C.), capped immediately after filling, and allowed to cool to ambient temperatures, vacuum absorption panels are generally provided in the body of the container to accommodate vacuum induced shrinkage resulting from the cooling of the container contents. In such containers, the injection molded threaded finish undergoes a minimal amount of distortion in the hot fill process. Hot fill containers molded of PET by this technique have found widespread acceptance in the marketplace.
For quite some time, there has been a need in the marketplace for a so-called wide-mouth container for hot fill applications. A wide mouth container enables the consumer to scoop-out contents which are not readily flowable. In the early 1980's, attempts were made to produce hot fillable PET containers having wide mouths by blow molding a thread on a portion of a PET preform below the threaded finish, thereby forming an intermediate article having a threaded region with blown threads. The intermediate article had a moil portion above the blown threads. The moil portion was subsequently severed, leaving a finished wide-mouth container. This manufacturing technique and resulting containers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,496,064; 4,618,515; and 4,665,682.
For reasons not fully known, these wide-mouth containers were not successful in the marketplace. There is, however, a current need for a hot fillable wide mouth container which is particularly suited for packaging viscous products, such as applesauce, and the like.